1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns an electrical connector housing element.
The invention is directed to an electrical connector housing element having passages accommodating electrical contact members connected to conductors, said housing element being adapted to be assembled to a complementary housing element comprising electrical contact members adapted to cooperate with the members of said housing element.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One prior art connector housing element includes mobile locking means on said element that can occupy two positions, a first or pre-locking position in which the electrical contact members can be inserted into the corresponding passages and a second or locking position in which it partially closes the passages so that said members cannot move therein.
These locking means usually comprise a mobile bar with notches that align with the passages in the prelocking position and are offset from it in the locking position.
This arrangement is entirely satisfactory if the contact members are relatively large, but cannot be used if they are very small and if the passages are very close together.
The prior art includes German patent 3 840 301 which describes a connector housing comprising a body with passages in which electrical contact members are engaged and a key for locking the latter members in the form of a U-shaped member adapted to occupy a standby position in which the passages are exposed to enable insertion of the contact members and a locking position in which the branches of the U-shape project into the passages to immobilize said contact members.
With an arrangement of this kind the number of passages is necessarily limited.
One object of the present invention is to improve this type of connector so that the number of passages can be very significantly increased substantially without any increase in its overall size.